TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter focuses on the brand objectives block of the process for building and sustaining brands (see Figure 6.1). The purpose of this chapter is to consider brand objectives and devise catalytic mechanisms to ensure that staff focus on striving to achieve these objectives. The chapter opens by focusing on long-term objectives, which need to be easily understood, gain interest and motivate everyone. Breaking down long-term objectives into shorter-term goals helps managers to fold back the future, and to facilitate this process the use of the market cube is described. To help focus people's attention on those strategies best suited to meet the stretching objectives, the concept of catalytic mechanisms is reviewed.
From the brand vision there should emerge a sense of direction for the brand. For example, Kingfisher, the group of retail businesses in DIY, electrical and general merchandise, has an encompassing objective of enabling people to enjoy their homes and lifestyles better than through any other retailer in the world. This provides a stretching objective and suggests implications for brand strategy. The next stage in the process of building and sustaining brands, as shown in Figure 6.1, is to take the ideas encapsulated in the brand vision and transform these into concrete objectives. The model developed in this book adheres to the views of Hamel and Prahalad (1994) that managers should roll the future back to the present, rather...
